Yet another Hacker News

California Farmers Are Struggling to Sell Grapes as Demand for Wine Drops

21 points randycupertino 1 hour ago 17 comments

ortusdux 30 minutes ago | parent

https://wineinstitute.org/press-releases/one-year-later/

https://www.fas.usda.gov/data/commodities/wine-related-produ...

randycupertino 20 minutes ago | parent

- Tariffs so less international demand for US wine

- Canadian boycots of US products due to tariff wars

- Boomer wine buyers dying off

- younger generations drinking less overall and being less into wine

- everyone on GLP-1s drinking less

ortusdux 19 minutes ago | parent

- Legal pot

reactordev 14 minutes ago | parent

- The economy

shmoil 26 minutes ago | parent

"Coca farmers are struggling to sell cocaine".

Grow more table grapes? Here in "Northern America" I haven't seen grapes on sale the whole summer, not even once.

bigwheels 21 minutes ago | parent

This is a totally different variety of grape compared to what they're setup to grow now.

I was thinking along the same vein, though - what about special varieties of grape juice?

It is objectively good if demand for alcohol goes down.

ScoobleDoodle 15 minutes ago | parent

Yes! I don't drink alcohol but have gone wine tasting with friends and one vineyard had grape juice from some of their grapes and it was interesting and yummy.

An interesting variety of grape juices would be very cool.

dylan604 14 minutes ago | parent

Why put something on sale when it is selling just fine at the current rates?

lukeify 10 minutes ago | parent

You realise to grow table grapes, you need to rip out the current vines you have right?

EdwardDiego 6 minutes ago | parent

Wine grapes are rather nice to eat (at least the ones I've tried), but they're typically smaller than American table grapes I've experienced, but hey, sell them as heirloom varieties at Portland farmers markets maybe?

toomuchtodo 21 minutes ago | parent

If you’re a domestic US wine lover, now is a great time to be buying if you have the space to store it.

JumpCrisscross 18 minutes ago | parent

That said, American wine—and California wine in particular—has a bit of an IPA problem inasmuch as there is a lot of overpriced, overproduced swill being priced exceptionally high by international standards.

toomuchtodo 15 minutes ago | parent

I get the swill at a discount :) "The best wine is the wine you like best." Best deal I recently got was a few hundred bottles for under $1k, <$5/bottle. Easier than the trek to a Trader Joe's or Costco, ymmv (and I don't feel bad throwing a bottle out if it isn't for me, versus a $100+ bottle).

Ancalagon 11 minutes ago | parent

Do you just buy barrels at that point?

toomuchtodo 10 minutes ago | parent

Only one so far, I'm willing to take more but not a lot on offer. Maybe I'm talking to the wrong suppliers. There's a right price for everything, but I am looking for fire sale|"going out of business" prices. Replies with leads welcome!

vrosas 10 minutes ago | parent

I feel for the wine growers, but as an avid wine consumer I'm looking forward to better deals.

neom 20 minutes ago | parent

Wasn't SGMA always the big long term problem for them anyway? I recall reading some time ago many are looking to pivot to solar farms.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_Groundwater_Manage...